Publications
Filter Total Items: 894
2024 Surprise Inlet landslides: Insights from a prototype landslide‐triggered tsunami monitoring system in Prince William Sound, Alaska 2024 Surprise Inlet landslides: Insights from a prototype landslide‐triggered tsunami monitoring system in Prince William Sound, Alaska
Alaska's coastal communities face growing landslide hazards owing to glacier retreat and extreme weather intensified by the warming climate, yet hazard monitoring remains challenging. As part of ongoing experimental monitoring in Prince William Sound, we detected three large landslides (0.5–2.3 M m3) at Surprise Inlet on 20 September 2024, within the span of an hour. These events were...
Authors
Ezgi Karasözen, Michael E. West, Katherine R. Barnhart, John J. Lyons, Terry Nichols, Lauren N. Schaefer, Bohyun Bahng, Summer Ohlendorf, Dennis M. Staley, Gabriel J. Wolken
Cascading land surface hazards as a nexus in the Earth system Cascading land surface hazards as a nexus in the Earth system
Earth’s surface is sculpted by numerous processes that move sediment, ranging from gradual and benign to abrupt and catastrophic. Although infrequent, high-magnitude sediment mobilization events can be hazardous to people and infrastructure, leaving topographic imprints on the landscape and remarkable narratives in the historical record. Hazardous events such as fires, storms, and...
Authors
Brian J. Yanites, Marin Clark, Joshua J. Roering, A. Joshua West, Dimitrios Zekkos, Jane W. Baldwin, Corina Cerovski-Darriau, Sean F. Gallen, Daniel E. Horton, Eric Kirby, Ben Leshchinksy, H. Benjamin Mason, Seulgi Moon, Katherine R. Barnhart, Adam M. Booth, Jonathan A. Czuba, Scott W. McCoy, Luke A. McGuire, Allison M. Pfeiffer, Jennifer L. Pierce
Preliminary field report of landslide hazards following Hurricane Helene Preliminary field report of landslide hazards following Hurricane Helene
Executive SummaryThis report reflects our knowledge regarding the widespread landslide activity associated with Hurricane Helene observed during the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) mission assignment to North Carolina in October 2024. The material in this report was originally prepared for the Federal Emergency Management Agency under mission assignment DR-4827-NC. The data and...
Authors
Kate E. Allstadt, Sara K. McBride, Jonathan W. Godt, Stephen L. Slaughter, Kelli W. Baxstrom, Steven Sobieszczyk, Anna Stull
Rainfall thresholds for postfire debris-flow initiation vary with short-duration rainfall climatology Rainfall thresholds for postfire debris-flow initiation vary with short-duration rainfall climatology
The size, frequency, and geographic scope of severe wildfires are expanding across the globe, including in the Western United States. Recently burned steeplands have an increased likelihood of debris flows, which pose hazards to downstream communities. The conditions for postfire debris-flow initiation are commonly expressed as rainfall intensity-duration thresholds, which can be...
Authors
David B. Cavagnaro, Scott W. McCoy, Donald N. Lindsay, Luke A. McGuire, Jason W. Kean, Daniel T. Trugman
Constraining landslide frequency across the United States to inform county-level risk reduction Constraining landslide frequency across the United States to inform county-level risk reduction
Informative landslide hazard estimates are needed to support landslide mitigation strategies to reduce landslide risk across the United States. Whereas existing national-scale landslide susceptibility products assess where landslides are likely to occur, they do not address how often, which is a critical element of landslide hazard and risk assessments. In particular, the U.S. Federal...
Authors
Lisa Victoria Luna, Jacob Bryson Woodard, Janice L. Bytheway, Gina Marie Belair, Benjamin B. Mirus
Uncertainty reduction for subaerial landslide-tsunami hazards Uncertainty reduction for subaerial landslide-tsunami hazards
Subaerial rock slopes may generate a tsunami by rapidly moving into the water. Large uncertainty in landslide characteristics propagates into large uncertainty in tsunami hazard, making hazard assessment more difficult for land and emergency managers. Once a potentially tsunamigenic landslide is identified, it may not be clear which landslide characteristics contribute most significantly...
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, David L. George, Andrew L. Collins, Lauren N. Schaefer, Dennis M. Staley
Assessment of western Oregon debris-flow hazards in burned and unburned environments Assessment of western Oregon debris-flow hazards in burned and unburned environments
In the steep and mountainous environment of western Oregon, debris flows pose a considerable threat to property, infrastructure and life. Wildfire is commonly known to increase the susceptibility of steep slopes to debris flows, but the extent of this process in the western Cascades is not well understood. The US Geological Survey (USGS) currently estimates postfire debris-flow...
Authors
Brittany Danielle Selander, Nancy C. Calhoun, William Burns, Jason W. Kean, Francis K. Rengers
Grfin Tools—User guide and methods for modeling landslide runout and debris-flow growth and inundation Grfin Tools—User guide and methods for modeling landslide runout and debris-flow growth and inundation
The software package, Grfin Tools, can estimate potential runout from landslides or inundation from geophysical mass flows such as debris flows, lahars from volcanoes, and rock avalanches within a digital elevation model (DEM). Grfin is an acronym of growth + flow + inundation. The tools within this package apply simple, well-tested, empirical models of runout that are computationally...
Authors
Mark E. Reid, Dianne L. Brien, Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff, Jonathan P. Perkins
Using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio method to estimate thickness of the Barry Arm landslide, Prince William Sound, Alaska Using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio method to estimate thickness of the Barry Arm landslide, Prince William Sound, Alaska
Conducting detailed investigations of large landslides is difficult, especially in the subsurface, largely due to environmental factors such as steep slopes, difficult access, and numerous objective hazards. These factors have made it challenging to accurately estimate the depth to the failure surface of the Barry Arm landslide, a large (roughly 108 cubic meters), deep-seated bedrock...
Authors
Andrew L. Collins, Kate E. Allstadt, Dennis M. Staley
Parsimonious high-resolution landslide susceptibility modeling at continental scales Parsimonious high-resolution landslide susceptibility modeling at continental scales
Landslide susceptibility maps are fundamental tools for risk reduction, but the coarse resolution of current continental-scale models is insufficient for local application. Complex relations between topographic and environmental attributes characterizing landslide susceptibility at local scales are not transferrable across areas without landslide data. Existing maps with multiple...
Authors
Benjamin B. Mirus, Gina Marie Belair, Nathan J. Wood, Jeanne M. Jones, Sabrina N. Martinez
RegionGrow3D: A deterministic analysis for characterizing discrete three-dimensional landslide source areas on a regional scale RegionGrow3D: A deterministic analysis for characterizing discrete three-dimensional landslide source areas on a regional scale
Regional-scale characterization of shallow landslide hazards is important for reducing their destructive impact on society. These hazards are commonly characterized by (a) their location and likelihood using susceptibility maps, (b) landslide size and frequency using geomorphic scaling laws, and (c) the magnitude of disturbance required to cause landslides using initiation thresholds...
Authors
Nicolas Wahde Mathews, Ben Leshchinksy, Benjamin B. Mirus, Michael J. Olsen, Adam M. Booth
Postfire sediment mobilization and its downstream implications across California, 1984 – 2021 Postfire sediment mobilization and its downstream implications across California, 1984 – 2021
Fire facilitates erosion through changes in vegetation and soil, with major postfire erosion commonly occurring even with moderate rainfall. As climate warms, the western United States (U.S.) is experiencing an intensifying fire regime and increasing frequency of extreme rain. We evaluated whether these hydroclimatic changes are evident in patterns of postfire erosion by modeling...
Authors
Helen Willemien Dow, Amy E. East, Joel B. Sankey, Jonathan Warrick, Jaime Kostelnik, Donald N. Lindsay, Jason W. Kean